FRANCE

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has condemned the illegal presence of US coalition troops in Syria, saying the Western forces deployed on the ground amount to “a direct involvement in the war.”

“There are special forces on the ground in Syria from the US – they no longer deny it – the UK, France and a number of other countries,” Lavrov said in an interview to the Kazakh state broadcaster published on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website on Saturday. “Thus, it’s not so much of a ‘proxy war,’ but rather a direct involvement in the war,” the diplomat stressed.

The US coalition is “illegitimate” from the standpoint of international law and the UN Charter, Lavrov said. “But we are realistic and understand that we wouldn’t fight with them. So we coordinate actions at least to prevent unintended clashes. Our military always keeps in touch with the American commanders who lead the operation on Syrian territory.”

On Wednesday Le Drian announced France’s “full confidence in the investigations that our British partners are carrying out” on the March 4 nerve agent incident involving Sergei and Yulia Skripal and a local police detective in Salisbury.

French President Emmanuel Macron refused to visit the Russia expo stand – an honored guest at the Paris Book Salon, which opened on Thursday.

“We were informed from the embassy that we received an official letter from the Elysee Palace, which states that President Macron will not visit our stand,” the representative of the Russian delegation, Yevgeny Reznichenko, told RIA Novosti.

It was expected that the French leader will take part in the grand opening of the stand.

Russian Ambassador to France, Alexei Meshkov, expressed regret in connection with the decision of the President of the Republic.

France has undermined Theresa May’s attempts to garner support for punitive action against Russia, saying it wants more proof Moscow was behind the Salisbury poisoning. It accused the PM of engaging in “fantasy politics.”

On Wednesday, May announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats and the suspension of bilateral talks. May claimed Russia was “culpable” for the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, which amounted to “unlawful use of force against the UK.”

However, President Emmanuel Macron’s spokesman suggested May was acting prematurely. “We don’t do fantasy politics. Once the elements are proven then the time will come for decisions to be made,” Benjamin Griveaux told a news conference in Paris.

A joint statement by the UK, US, France and Germany says the poisoning of ex-double agent Sergei Skripal was a violation of Britain’s sovereignty by Russia and was the first offensive use of a chemical agent since World War II.

The incident, in which Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in Salisbury on March 4, involved “a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia,” said the statement issued on Thursday. The four countries said the incident constituted “the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War.”

THE European Union face the biggest threat yet, according to a German political correspondent, who claims that Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron's EU agenda could be demolished by next year's European elections.

Excerpts from the new bill on media, which would allegedly target fake news and is, in fact, aimed against RT broadcaster and Sputnik news agency, have been published in the French newspaper Monde.

According to the excerpts published on Wednesday, the new legislation would expand the powers of the country’s broadcasting watchdog Conseil Superieur de L’audiovisuel (CSA) regarding the operation of media outlets linked to foreign countries. As an example, there were only RT and Sputnik provided.

In particular, the CSA would be able to deny license applications for the media under control or influenced by foreign states, if the media outlet is suspected of threatening basic national interests or undermining state institutions, in particular, by spreading fake news.

An amendment to a proposed bill on France’s military planning for 2019-2025 submitted by the parliamentary faction of La France Insoumise (Unsubmissive France)wants to reiterate the country’s strategic independence from NATO.

The draft has said that NATO’s meddling in Afghanistan, Libya and other countries invariably resulted “in chaos, an upsurge of terrorism, millions of refugees, the plunder of cities and the countries’ disappearance from the world map.”

In an interview with Sputnik France, the party’s official spokesman on international affairs and defense, Djordje Kuzmanovic, said that the amendment was part of the party’s election campaign program to end France’s membership in NATO which he described as a militarist organization which prevents France from taking strategic decisions, depriving it of sovereign status and the ability to influence global events.

“It’s time we stopped being America’s handmaid,” Kuzmanovic emphasized.

A 35-year-old man of Sri Lankan origin has suffered horrific injuries to his head and arm after two assailants, armed with a machete and a saber, stormed an Indian restaurant in Paris’ 10th arrondissement.

The gruesome attack, the scene of which both assailants managed to flee, took place on Monday night in the French capital, according to local media reports. The 10th arrondissement is home to a large South Asian community.

The most high-profile attack on a church in France came in 2016 when a pair of Islamic radical jihadists attacked and killed priest Jacques Hamel while he was giving mass. The year before, French authorities foiled a similar plot by an Algerian migrant who was planning to attack churches in Paris with military-grade weapons.

A 40-year-old illegal migrant living in France has been arrested in Montpellier after being suspected of murdering a 45-year-old homeless Romanian and was found wearing the murder victim’s shoes.

The Romanian man’s body was found in January in a vacant lot in the city by police near the Montpellier-Nîmes railway line. Police say that they were able to track down the Algerian illegal migrant after surveillance footage showed him in the area wearing the shoes given to the Romanian by a local charity, Metropolitain reports.

According to investigators, the Algerian had also frequented homeless shelters and other organisations that help the poor and the homeless including those that were used by the victim. Whether or not the Algerian knew the victim beforehand, police were not able to say.

The unelected rulers of the EU in Brussels are about to bring down one of their biggest critics, as lackey French President Macron is moving forward with charges against former French Presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.

It is no secret that the EU finds free speech to be a nuisance, and has nothing but contempt for leaders like Le Pen who has historically called out the dictatorial rule of Brussels, by highlighting the endless illegal wars in the Middle East, covert support for ISIS, and promotion of a destructive migrant policy.

The former French National Front leader has now been formally charged with circulating “violent messages that incite terrorism”, for a series of tweets she sent after the massacre at Paris concert hall the Bataclan in 2015.

The crime levied against Le Pen is punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros.

When the truth becomes "hate speech", a society, and a culture, is in deep trouble, and is sliding down a slippery slope from which it may never recover.

I don't like Le Pen or her politics, and I have known a number of people from the Middle East who are absolute poster children for legal immigration.

One who comes to mind is a wonderfully cultured gentleman, who speaks excellent English, who used to work with Mike many years ago.

he was Muslim, his wife was Hindu, and they named their little girl Sarah, which is the name of a Jewish princess.

They were absolutely lovely, and the little girl was bright, and beautiful, and raised without prejudice against any faith tradition, but was taught to be respectful of all good people, no matter what their background.

But if these events are actually documented to have happened, I must absolutely defend Le Pen's right to say that they happened, and ask the French government just what the hell it is going to do to prevent similar acts of barbarity in the future.

Either these images were real, or they are not; and if they were real, the French people should have the right to see them, and have an intelligent disussion about how to keep people like these monsters from getting into France.

31-year-old French MP, Aurore Bergé found herself at the centre of a Twitter storm after wearing a short, low-cut dress for her appearance on popular French TV show Salut Les Terriens (Hey Earthlings) on Saturday night.

Although she appeared on the show in her capacity as MP for Emmanuel Macron's La Republique en Marche! party to talk about serious issues such as education and public service reforms, it was her dress, not her words that caught the attention of most viewers.

France has joined the US and Britain in threatening Damascus with possible airstrikes in the event of further chemical weapons use in Syria.

Their threats on Friday came as terrorist groups continued shelling a safe corridor declared by the Syrian government for civilians to leave Eastern Ghouta.

Takfiri terrorists have turned the enclave on the suburbs of Damascus to a launch pad for mortar attacks on the Syrian capital.

The Syrian army is currently in the midst of an operation to drive the terrorists out of Eastern Ghouta, but it is facing a hostile West threatening attacks on Syrian troops which it accuses of targeting civilians.

Western leaders were quick to point the finger at the Syrian government after reports of chlorine release in Eastern Ghouta last week.

For years, foreign-backed militants have appeared to release chemical substances in the areas close to the site of government airstrikes and capture the aftermath on videos.

Webmaster's Commentary:

The logical question which one has to ask here, is why al-Assad be gassing and poisoning his own people, when his and Russia's forces are so close to a military victory against the jihadists?!?

And here's a companion piece from the English language version of sputniknews.com:

EMMANUEL Macron has been branded “arrogant and vindictive” in a scathing attack by the head of France’s hard-left CGT trade union Philippe Martinez as rail workers threaten protests over controversial reforms.

The French President has taken the heat at the annual Paris International Agricultural Show, as farmers and activists angry with the government’s trade and agricultural policies came to the event to blow off steam.

Emmanuel Macron was met with heckles and boos during his first appearance as President at an agricultural show and trade fair that French politicians occasionally use to reach out to the public to promote their political agenda.

As activists from the vegan and animal group "269 Life France" staged a demonstration against the President during the fair, farmers spoke loudly against producer prices, trade talks with Mercosur (A South American trade bloc that includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) and the purchase of French land by China.

The State Prosecutor in the French city of Orléans is investigating possible incitement to racial hatred, following Twitter attacks on a mixed-race girl chosen to play Joan of Arc in upcoming city celebrations.

17-year-old Mathilde Edey Gamassou had been chosen to play the Medieval heroine of French history in Orléans’ annual Johannique festival. A local schoolgirl of African (Bénin) and Polish descent, she will ride on horseback through the city center dressed in armor during the celebrations, commemorating Joan of Arc’s breaking of the siege of the city by the English in 1429.

Webmaster's Commentary:

While I do not support the online harassment, I can see their point. A French heroine should be portrayed by a French woman!

The US has blocked Franco-Egyptian negotiations on the sale of additional Rafale fighter jets to the Egyptian Air Force by refusing to export an American component aboard the Scalp cruise missile, French outlet La Tribune reported.

Alexandre Vautravers, an official at the Geneva Center for Security Policy (GCSP), discussed with Sputnik the impact of US companies being in the chain of contractors on European military suppliers.

"It would be great if France's manufacturing industry could produce entirely French products, but we should take into account the development cost of each component in a complicated missile like Scalp. What if no country can afford purchasing these missiles," Vautravers said.

Activists are celebrating a victory for Palestinian rights after a festival to promote Israel was canceled at the University of Lille in northern France last week.

Meanwhile, the French government is continuing its complicity with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which it claims to oppose.

The Escale en Israel – “a stop in Israel” – festival was supposed to run from 14-17 February, featuring lectures, music, films, wine tasting and cookery. It was sponsored by the university and several private firms.

EMMANUEL Macron faces one of the biggest tests of his presidency as he pushes forward a controversial bill to toughen France’s stance on migration, with even some of his own party reluctant to back it.

At around 8.40pm on Monday February 18, up to 20 people gathered close to the Forum des Halles shopping complex in central Paris to take part in an almost medieval battle.

Thought to all be members of rival groups belonging to Paris’s Tamil community, French TV channel BFMTV reported, some of the men are believed to have pulled out knives and fought each other to the death, or at least the brink of it.

Four people were arguing about money in a Clichy-sous-Bois apartment in an eastern Paris suburb on Sunday, according to Le Parisien.

The quarrel escalated into a brawl, as three men reportedly attacked the fourth, biting off his lower-lip and ear in process. The victim of the attack managed to escape, wounding one of the offenders in the ankle, and call for help.

Three attackers have been arrested for cannibalism after the police arrived at the scene, one of them was taken to the Montfermeil Hospital with the victim.

So, let Cold War 2.0 dissolve into what it should always have been – an empty shell.

The Munich Security Conference is supposed to be an annual lofty gathering of global politicians, and military and intelligence experts. Theoretically, they discuss serious security matters under a cool professional eye in an informed setting.

Yet, in these times of doom and gloom, what the 54th conference yielded was another Russophobia show – a direct connection to the “Russiagate” soap opera in Washington.

A new US strategy in Syria: to punish the Russians as much as possible short of an overt US attack on Russian forces.

Events in Syria have recently clearly taken a turn for the worse and there is an increasing amount of evidence that the Russian task force in Syria is being targeted by a systematic campaign of “harassing attacks”.

First, there was the (relatively successful) drone and mortar attack on the Russian Aerospace base in Khmeimin. Then there was the shooting down of a Russian SU-25 over the city of Maasran in the Idlib province. Now we hear of Russian casualties in the US raid on a Syrian column (along with widely exaggerated claims of “hundreds” of killed Russians).

THE only way to save France is to follow in Britain’s footsteps and leave the EU, a former aide of Marine Le Pen has warned. Far-right chief Marine Le Pen’s former aide Florian Philippot has called for France to leave the EU, before hailing patriotism as the policy of the future.

The unjust incarceration of Dr Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University, demeans and disgraces the French legal system.

Tariq has been detained in a solitary cell in the high security wing of Paris’s Fleury-Merogis prison since the 2nd of February 2018. It is alleged that he raped two women in Lyon and Paris in 2009 and 2012 respectively. A criminal investigation is being carried out in order to build a case against him. He has no access to his family and is not even allowed to communicate with them through the phone.

It should be emphasised that it was Tariq who voluntarily went to the police in Paris on the 31st of January to answer the allegations against him. He has cooperated fully with the investigating authorities. And yet he has been treated harshly.

The French government is considering whether to up its fight against the preplanned obsolescence of electronic goods and home appliances by introducing a “lifetime” index label on such products to alert customers of their durability.

France’s government is contemplating whether to introduce a measure that would see all electronic goods and home appliances sold in the country carry labels that inform the general public of the products’ actual lifespan.

The stickers would take the shape of a colour index similar to those found on energy consumption labels on household appliances like washing machines. Each product will get a grade from 1 to 10, rated for its build quality, repairability and durability.

If the measure is approved, it will be voluntary from 2020 onwards and then made mandatory, Secretary of State to the Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition Brune Poirson is reported as saying by Le Parisien.

Around 1,000 'young' French farmers are set to descend on the Elysee Palace at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron next week as tensions between France's farming community and the government build.

Farmers across France have been blockading roads and causing traffic chaos to raise the alarm that "villages could die" if their voices are not heard.

But that hasn't stopped Macron from inviting 1,000 of them, specifically those aged under 35, to the Elysée Palace in advance of Paris's annual Agricultural Fair.

French railways workers were urged Friday to join civil servants in a nationwide day of protest next month against President Emmanuel Macron's reform agenda in what will be a major test of strength.
The leader of the country's biggest public-sector trade union, the CGT, called the rail protests on March 22 over plans by the government to remove some of the privileges enjoyed by workers on the train network.

The trigger was a major report recommending an overhaul of the debt-laden and loss-making SNCF rail system which was submitted to Macron's centrist government on Thursday.

"Rail workers will organise a national protest day on March 22 and of course rail workers will defend public services, their jobs and their status," the head of the CGT Philippe Martinez told France Inter radio.

Two decades after it scrapped its compulsory military service France will introduce a mandatory "national service" for all young people, the government said Tuesday, confirming a campaign pledge by President Emmanuel Macron.
Macron took the country by surprise a year ago when he announced that, if elected, he would make all young people spend a month getting "a direct experience of military life with its know-how and demands".

He billed it as a way to build social cohesion and patriotism in a country battling deep divisions, by bringing young people from different backgrounds together in a barracks.

But the proposal raised hackles in the army, which is already stretched thin by anti-terrorism operations in the Middle East and West Africa as well as patrols against jihadists at home.

French President Emmanuel Macron's plans to conduct reforms aimed at regulating the status of Islam in the country seek to organize this religion in France, depriving it of influence from abroad, experts told Sputnik.

In an interview to the French newspaper Journal du Dimanche, Macron stated he was working on a plan on the reorganization of Islam in France, in order to establish its peaceful co-existence with other religions as well as with the state. The project of the reform has not fully taken shape yet, but Macron said he planned to set all the key points in the first six months of 2018.

"I think he [Macron] is looking to organize, not re-organize Islam. He wants that Islam in France gets rid of the influence from abroad," Kader Abderrahim, an Interdisciplinary Research Institute on Social Issues (IRIS) research fellow specializing in Islamism and a lecturer at Sciences Po University said.

Emmanuel Macron has promised to “strike” Syria if any evidence emerges that chemical weapons were used against civilians. However, he added that French intelligence agencies do not have proof to back up such allegations.
“On chemical weapons, I set a red line and I reaffirm that red line,” Macron told reporters in Paris on Tuesday. “Today, our agencies, our armed forces have not established that chemical weapons, as set out in treaties, have been used against the civilian population.”

If any evidence is found, France will strike the places where chemical weaponry shipments "originate," he added. The French President also recalled his phone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which took place last Friday.

"In connection with the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, the President of the Republic noted that implementation of the Minsk Agreements has reached a deadlock, and stressed the need for taking concrete measures to de-escalate the conflict and alleviate the suffering of the people, [launch] the ceasefire, and immediately implement the humanitarian measures proposed by France and Germany," – reads the statement released by Macron’s administration.

Macron and Putin are leaders of the countries participating in the "Normandy Quartet," a group that is trying to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine.

International investors are bullish, Wall Street bankers ecstatic, French business leaders full of confidence. And above all, Angela Merkel is happy.

Less than a year after he took office, President Emmanuel Macron has ample reason to boast about France’s economic rebound. As happened across the eurozone, French GDP growth was much stronger than expected last year — estimated at about 1.6 percent on an annual basis, a big jump from 2016’s 1.1 percent. And growth should be solid again in 2018.

Macron’s determination to reform is being taken seriously in France and even in Germany, which has long been skeptical of French presidents’ reformist proclamations. Later this year, however, long-standing economic fragilities could reveal some chinks in the president’s armor.

Hundreds of students and teachers gathered in the French capital on Thursday to protest the reform of the system of final high school exams taken by students before they go off to university, as well a proposal which would make major changes to the country's university admissions system.

Meeting in front of the University of Jussieu, demonstrators from several student and teachers' unions marched in the direction of the Sorbonne, which houses much of Paris's higher education establishment.

ANGELA Merkel’s ongoing attempts to reform a so-called “Grand Coalition” with the Social Democrats (SPD) will ultimately result in a more bureaucratic and less stable European Union, business leaders in Germany have warned.

Men in France could be fined €350 (US$435) if they follow women in the street, whistle at them, make loud comments about their appearance or ask for their phone numbers, according to a draft proposal to combat “sexual contempt.”

Americans are so totally brainwashed by Israeli propaganda that there is no public restraint on Washington serving Israel’s interest.

Peter Jenkins, a former British ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, expresses concerns about the decisions of France, Germany, and the UK to appease President Trump on fixing “flaws” in the Iranian nuclear agreement.

TONY BLAIR has said that Emmanuel Macron's presidency will suffer if Europe allows Britain to leave the European Union - as the arch-Remainer used his time in Davos to encourage European leaders to scupper Brexit.

It turns out America’s most “hated” and “racist” President attracts the crowd at DAVOS and get close to a Hero’s welcome at the World Economic Forum, while moving his # America First, # MAGA agenda forward.

It turned out in Saudi Arabia President Trump received the grandest red carpet treatment ever accorded to an American President by the leaders of the Arab and Muslim world.

So, is it President Trump’s leadership or is it America’s role in the world?

The president of the Belgian trade union Federation of Transport and Logistics (SECOP-ITSRE) Alain Durant told Sputnik France that Belgian truck stops have become a magnet for migrants and refugees seeking to cross La Manche (the English Channel).

Durant’s remark follows a statement made by Theo Francken, Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum, Migration and Administrative Simplification, who has recently called on the European Union to tackle the pressing issue of the transit of migrants via the country’s motorways. Francken has also urged Great Britain to allocate resources to reinforce the security measures at parking spots along the roads.

Some 20 flood warnings were issued for Paris and surrounding areas, with French authorities putting residents and businesses along the capital’s River Seine on high alert over rising floodwaters. The water level is already nearly on a par with the floods of 2016, when the Seine burst its banks resulting in the deaths of four people and the evacuation of 20,000 others, RT repored. Images from Paris show floodwaters creeping up around the Pont de Grenelle and covering the pedestrian platform of the city’s Statue of Liberty. France has experienced exceptional levels of rainfall this January. A flood warning from the country’s Directorate of the Environment and Energy (DRIEE) forecasts that the Seine, the 770-kilometer long river which runs through the French capital, could reach up to 6 meters in height by Sunday.

This is what ‘the great and the good’ in the business world will not be discussing during the annual talk-fest at the Swiss luxury resort.
This is the exclusive club, which meets in the luxury Swiss resort each year to discuss the global business environment.

Davos is essentially double-dip land. On one side, we have ‘Bad for Labor’, with millions in the West thrown into an unemployment hell or suffering from a wages freeze. On the other side, we have ‘Good for Capital’, with companies flush with cash. Yet the result is uncertainty, all over again.

Once a long time ago in western European countries of Germany, Sweden, Great Britain and France had strong Christian roots. The people were very strong in biblical principles that promoted high moral standards being the salt of the earth. Now it seems the Church has become very ineffective no longer the moral compass of Western Europe. Christianity was a very strong influence in Western European societies long ago, now the church is just a structure and no longer an institution as a strong moral anchor to preserve stability their societies.

Once a long time ago in western European countries of Germany, Sweden, Great Britain and France had strong Christian roots. The people were very strong in biblical principles that promoted high moral standard being the salt of the earth. Now it seems the Church has become very ineffective no longer the moral compass of Western Europe. Christianity was a very strong influence in Western European societies, now the church is just a structure and no longer an institution as a strong moral anchor to preserve their society.

French pundits have revealed why President Macron publicly speculated about the possible outcome of a Frexit vote, and what his actions say about the current state of affairs in France.

Gerard Filoche, a French politician and former member of the Socialist Party, told Sputnik France that Macron apparently made this statement about Frexit because “the ‘no’ of the May 29, 2005 referendum (on the European Constitution) gained more ground during the last 13 years.”

"And if a referendum will be held, the ‘no’ will win again. Not because the people of France are against Europe, but because they say ‘no’ to liberal Europe. They said ‘no’ to Sarkozy and Hollande because these two were promoting liberal Europe, with its rules that led to unemployment, inequality, austerity and poverty, and at the same time help raise fortunes and foster financial empires," he said.

FRENCH president Emmanuel Macron shocked Andrew Marr during their interview when he admitted that had France held a referendum on membership of the EU after Brexit, the French people would vote to leave.

Drivers working for the Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP), Paris’s publicly-owned transport company, say that several stations to the north of Paris have become rife with drug use and criminality and present a danger to passengers, French broadcaster BFMTV reports.

According to the RATP union UNSA, there are drug addicts and dealers seen daily on lines 4 and 12 at stations like Marcadet Poissonnier and Porte de la Chapelle with the later station also being a well-known place for migrants to camp out.

The union also says that the safety of the RATP employees is impacted in troubled areas as the number of violent incidents toward the employees has increased dramatically in recent months.

French film star Brigitte Bardot accused Hollywood actresses, who declared themselves victims of sexual violence and harassment, of hypocrisy. Most of those statements are simply ridiculous, Bardot said. Bardot stressed that Hollywood actresses seduce producers themselves to get desired roles, "and then, to be talked about, they announce that they were harassed." "In reality, it hurts them much more than it helps them," she said. "It seemed pleasant to me when I was told I was beautiful, or that I had a nice little butt. Such compliments are pleasant," the 83-year-old film legend said. Earlier in January, Catherine Deneuve, another outstanding French actress, and 99 other famous French women stood up in defense of men who had fallen victims of witch hunt because of their desire to flirt with women. During the 1950s, Brigitte Bardot was declared a sex symbol of Europe; she was comparable to Marilyn Monroe in the USA.

The state of California government has gone rogue and out of control. What happens in California can have some major ramifications nationwide if something is not done to put the state government in check. The state Legislator has passed laws that go far beyond infringing on people’s personal liberties. What is going on in the state is a major train wreck getting ready to happen that could have been preventable.

Bodycam footage of an altercation between an already injured man and French police captures the moment the suspect burst into flames after being simultaneously tear gassed and tasered. The video has been making rounds online.

The shocking video was captured by the bodycam of one of the officers involved in the incident, which dates back to July 2013, but has surfaced on social media only this week.

The video shows a shirtless and visibly agitated man with one of his arms covered in blood moving towards officers while insisting he had done nothing wrong. Although the man does not appear to be overtly aggressive, he repeatedly taunts the officers and refuses to obey when told to stop and put the hands behind his back.

FRENCH president Emmanuel Macron’s government is facing a fierce backlash over plans to harden the country’s immigration laws, with members of the opposition and charities accusing the government of planning mass deportations.

A new German study, based on data that Angela Merkel’s government had kept hidden, has confirmed statistically what Merkel’s opponents have charged: The refugee tsunami to which Merkel opened Germany’s (and all of Europe’s) gates in 2015-2016, has also brought a huge crime wave. If this information had been allowed to reach German voters before last September’s federal elections, media darling Merkel likely would not have won her fourth term as chancellor. Merkel and her Left allies have always denied the refugee-asylee-migrant crime connection. Now that the facts are out (at least a small fraction — most of the data is still restricted) — the Left is trying to spin the evidence to argue for more Muslim migrants and more migrant benefits. Incredible?

Printer manufacturers “deliberately shorten the life of printers and cartridges,” a French environmental and consumer protection group claims. That's against the law in France, and government prosecutors have agreed to investigate the claims.

If the lawsuit against the printer company, Japan-based Epson, is proven, the firm could be found guilty of breaking a little-known French law that stipulates vendors can’t purposefully lower the lifespan of a product to ramp up replacement rates.

A conviction could be significant for tech hardware manufacturing overall. Nabbing Epson would likely affect not only how hardware is built and sold in France, but it also could mean laws get adopted in other European territories —individual nations are involved in the functioning of the EU bloc overall.

"From the start," warned journalist Glenn Greenwald on Thursday in response the proposal by French President Emmanuel Macron, the phrase "fake news" has been used as a "rhetorical term with no definition, ensuring abuse. First, Trump appropriated it to attack journalism. Now Macron is exploiting it to obtain government control over the internet. Terms that lack definition are propaganda."

French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to kickstart a “French renaissance” and promised to pursue his reforms with “the same intensity” in his first New Year’s address as the country’s leader. “Ask yourselves every morning what you can do for the country,” he urged. “I want to say that with this conquering spirit that we have, with this determination and sincere ambition… we would help breathe life into our French renaissance,” he said. Macron also pledged to continue to work with Germany to reform the European Union, adding that “Europe is good for France.”

Washington’s support for Israel’s perpetual and overt violation of international law and its bombing of humanitarian missions makes Israel a very costly ally.

The US suffered an overwhelming and humiliating defeat, one that kept Ambassador Haley dexterous fingers busy ‘taking notes’: 128 nations demanded that the Trump regime withdraw its declaration that Jerusalem was Israel’s undivided capital for Jews. Only 9 micro-nations (some mere postage stamps and a few death-squad banana-stans) voted with the Trump-Haley decision, 35 mendicant-states put their heads down and abstained while 21 timorous ambassadors chose to hide their shamelessness in the toilet stalls rather than show up for this important vote.

“One of the unfortunate ironies of the manufactured ‘Russiagate’ controversy,” my colleague Sheldon Richman writes in his most recent column, is the perception of the FBI as a friend of liberty and justice.” He’s dead right about that, but just whom is he addressing?

I’ve been reading Pepe Escobar’s articles for over 30 years–since the time I would read re-prints of his “Asia Times” articles in The Japan Times–my daily reading when I lived in Japan. These days, I mostly catch his work at a number of excellent global websites.

A French activist group has launched a criminal lawsuit against Apple over its policy of slowing down older iPhones in a case that could see the tech giant 's executives jailed and cost it five percent of its income if convicted of the crime of "planned obsolescence".

The move by Halte à l’Obsolescence Programmée (HOP - Stop Planned Obsolescence), an environmental association, comes after lawsuits were launched this week in the US against Apple for similar reasons.

The suit was filed on Wednesday in the Paris prosecutor’s office, HOP said in a statement.

“Apple has put in place a global strategy of programmed obsolescence in order to boost its sales” of new iPhones, the group said.

HOP believes that the US firm can be sued over the sale of all iPhones in France since the introduction of a law in August 2015 that made it a crime to “deliberately reduce the lifespan of a product to increase the rate of replacement.”

France is set to make demands on Theresa May over the British border in Calais after Brexit. Hundreds of migrants and refugees remain stranded on the French side of the English Channel.

As Britain prepares to leave the EU, French President Emmanuel Macron will insist the UK must contribute millions for the improvement of border controls in northern France. Denying the request could see the collapse of the Le Touquet treaty, which allows the two states to manage border posts in each other’s territory.

Macron wants new customs posts, which the UK will be expected to fund.

***
The magazine, which is aimed at children aged from five to eight, includes trivia card games. On one of the cards, Israel is put on a par with North Korea, both of which are apparently not “real countries.”

"197: We call these 197 countries states, like France, Germany or Algeria. There are others, too, but not all the world’s countries agree that all of them are real countries (for example the State of Israel or North Korea),” reads the card, which has sparked a fierce backlash.

“Shocked by this lie taught to children. Such rhetoric can only encourage anti-Zionism, inseparable from anti-Semitism,” Aliza Bin Noun, the ambassador of Israel to France, said on Twitter, while tagging French President Emmanuel

Francis Kalifat, the president of CRIF (the Federation of Jewish Communities and Organizations of France) condemned the cards, calling them a “factual lie and a flagrant one at that.”

Following the backlash, the magazine was removed from kiosk sales in France and Belgium.

For the second time in two months, firefighters were attacked in the French city of Nimes.

This time an incident took place in the Chemin Bas d’Avignon district. The fire brigade received an emergency call about a car fire.

They reacted immediately but at their arrival in the Nimes suburb, there was no fire. Instead they were greeted by “three or four hooded individuals”. Shortly afterwards, stones the size of baseballs were thrown at them by the men.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and Secretary General of ?France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maurice Gourdault-Montagne held the fourth round of political talks between the Islamic Republic and the Western European country.

“How are the mighty fallen!” is a statement that ranges far beyond Gath and Ashkelon. And it is repeated throughout the centuries as empires stumble and fall.

For those keeping score on the Trump Administration versus the United Nations, the final vote on the Status of Jerusalem resolution is recorded above.

The official count was 128 to 9 against U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and his pledge to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Thirty-three members of the UN General Assembly abstained.

As France 24 reports, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has become entangled in a controversy over his use of a chartered flight to travel from Tokyo to Paris earlier this month. Philippe chartered a private aircraft at a cost of 350,000 euros ($415,000) to bring him and a delegation back from Tokyo earlier this month when a French military transport was flying essentially the same route at roughly the same time.